Over the past few months, I have developed a taste for cryptic crosswords. Different to normal crosswords, these puzzles revolve around clues that are self-contained miniature riddles, of sorts, that prioritise wordplay and brain-teasing, rather than just giving you a direct definition to figure out. The problem is, I’m not very good at them. Understanding them is like understanding a different language, and until recently, I didn’t know how to go about beginning to comprehend it. But now I do. My daily morning routine consists of making my coffee and opening up the fantastic Minute Cryptic app on my phone as I wait for my caffeine to brew. I feel like I’ve gone from greenhorn to adept in a matter of weeks.
The app is a gift for people trying to learn the arcane magic behind cryptic crosswords: there are free ‘courses’ that teach you how to understand the weird clues, broken down into letterplay and wordplay. In solving the clues themselves, the app gives you hints, allowing you to reveal either the fodder (the specific letters, words, or phrases in a clue that must be rearranged, manipulated, or used to form the answer), indicators (words that help you identify the fodder), and the definition (words that point to the meaning of the final answer).
It all sounds quite complicated on paper, I know, but using the courses on offer as a launch pad, you can start to unravel clues that – at first – seem completely nonsensical. Today’s (6th May, 2026) is: A cat’s head poked into nest! Ready wings for descent! (8) About a month ago, I’d have seen that and my synapses would have collapsed inwardly on themselves, but today, I can parse it. If you get an answer with minimal hints, depending on the difficulty of the clue, you can come in ‘under par’ by Minute Cryptic’s standards – a really neat way of gamifying the experience and tracking your progress when it comes to solving cryptic crosswords.
I thought this was good enough, but then – thanks to a bit of Instagram algorithm magic – I was made aware of PokéCryptic, a site seemingly inspired by Minute Cryptic, but for all things Pokémon. And it’s totally free! Can you believe it? The twist here, as you can probably guess, is that the cryptic clues refer to anything and everything Pokemon – I’ve only been playing a few days now, but it seems that the clues can point towards Pokémon species themselves, or abilities, moves or items in the Pokémon universe.
A video explaining the clue for today’s puzzle.Watch on YouTube
Better yet, the site has all the same functionality of Minute Cryptic, allowing you to ask for hints pertaining to the indicators, the fodder, and the definition if you get stuck. Similarly to the non-Pokémon crossword app, there’s a par rating, too – I got today’s clue with two hints, so I was on par. In the past, I’ve been slightly under par with this one, so I’m a bit miffed. Today’s answer is one of my favourite Pokémon, too. Go figure!
As an added bonus, each day there is a video accompanying the clue on PokéCryptic, talking you through the logic used to assemble the clue (illustrated with some charming Professor Oak animation, to boot). Watching these, you can start to reverse engineer the puzzles and – ideally – begin to get enough knowledge about how it all works to start to solve the clues yourself.
Yesterday’s puzzle with an open answer field, and then a solved version of the puzzle showing the identifiers (in red) and the fodder (in yellow). | Image credit: PokeCryptic
You can check out the puzzles at the link above, but there are also some handy places to weave thinking about cryptic crosswords into your daily life: you can see Oak explaining the clues on Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok. I’ll take this opportunity to shout out another creator I’ve been enjoying lately, too: TrevorSolves is a fantastic account that first introduced me to PokeCryptic. He talks through his process to show you how to approach breaking down cryptic crossword clues, and posts daily videos tackling both PokéCryptic and Minute Cryptic. It’s partly thanks to his informative and clear short-form content that I’ve been able to train my brain into unravelling these fiendish clues.
Go give these games a try; whilst the jury is still out on whether crossword-lovers really do have more resilient brains, there’s distinct evidence that proves people that routinely solve crossword puzzles saw improvements in “instrumental activities of daily living”; ergo, better short-term memory, and general executive function. As an auDHD-er myself, I’ll take all the help I can get, thanks.
The skills these apps help you develop aren’t just tied to solving clues in PokéCryptic and Minute Cryptic, by the way. Yesterday, for the first time, I managed to tackle the entirety of The Guardian’s cryptic crossword for April – and believe me when I tell you that thing is a bastard. I would not be in a position to even think about tackling that without the training these apps have provided for me. I think I should get a Gym Badge for my efforts, to be honest with you.